Allen's Islamophobia and the British news media : a critical evaluation of Islamophobia as a concept and its application to the written news media in Britain between 2001 and 2008.

This Dissertation firstly regards the definition of Islamophobia by Christopher Allen and its development out of Orientalism. Secondly it regards the written news media between 2001 and 2008 which includes the events of 9/11 and 7/7. Then the levels of representation Islam and Muslims receive the kinds of news hooks and discourses as well as types of language used are aspects covered that are then compared to Allen’s definition of Islamophobia. Thirdly specific stories from immediately after the 9/11 attacks are analysed and again compared to Allen’s definition. It is the aim of this dissertation to firstly assess to what extent the news media can be classified as Islamophobic, or have created trends in the papers where Islamophobic sentiments are standard and that negative stances have either gone unnoticed or have been deemed acceptable. Secondly this dissertation aims to establish how applicable and useful Allen’s definition is, especially in regards to the news media. This dissertation uses a Phenomenological approach and critical analysis on two research papers. Firstly: Images of Islam in the UK: The Representation of British Muslims in the National Press, 2000-8 – found in Pointing the Finger: Islam and Muslims in the British Media – which is an analysis on how written reporting of Islam and Muslims has changed over an eight year period. Secondly: Islam in the British Broadsheets: The Impact of Orientalism on Representations on Islam in the British Press which covers specific instances of representation of Muslims and Islam in the written media. It is the findings of this paper that the levels of representation Islam and Muslims received dramatically raised at the time of 9/11 and as such was the primary lens through which Islam and Muslims were viewed. It is also established that the types of News Hooks, Discourses and Language used during this time period were primarily negative in nature, either focusing on Terrorism or Extremism. Also feelings that are deemed to be Islamophobic are clearly more prevalent, or at least more conspicuous, in modern times as well being quite explicit directly after 9/11. However it is the argument of this paper that it is unclear as to whether this negative trend of representation and Islamophobia is due to the Media portraying a view on Islam and Muslims or if the Media is merely reflecting the already established prevalent view. It is established that Allen’s description of Islamophobia and its comprehensive nature demonstrate a model that can be easily utilised. As a definition it is similar in theme and form to that of racism and anti-Semitism. However it is the argument of this dissertation that Allen’s definition is too vague and open to vast application that can limit academic or critical evaluation of Islam and therefore needs to become more concise